Staff from an aquarium came to the rescue of a seal pup as it struggled in freezing temperatures.

St Andrews Aquarium in Fife said it was "inundated" with phone calls from members of the public telling them a small, grey seal pup, thought to be only weeks old, had washed up on West Sands beach in St Andrews.

Aquarium staff tended to the seal before the Scottish SPCA took the pup to its wildlife rescue centre in Fife.

Andrew Whiston, displays manager at the aquarium, said: "Upon assessing the situation we immediately called the Scottish SPCA to attend.

"Because of the general physical state of the young animal, who was very underweight, shivering and clearly very ill, they asked if we could capture him and administer immediate first-aid treatment pending their arrival, which we duly did.

"Time was clearly of the essence and our first task was to get the young pup warm as he was clearly struggling with the temperatures of the Scottish winter.

"We kept him off the ground on a warm vet bed until the Scottish SPCA could collect him and take him to their wildlife rescue centre in Fife."

The Scottish SPCA said the young seal, who staff named Atlantis after the space shuttle, is expected to make a full recovery.

Rescue centre manager Colin Seddon said: "Atlantis was very light and hadn't been thriving, so this was clearly a seal pup that needed rescuing.

"We'll continue to care for him until he is ready to be released back into the wild."